Unexpected Compassion
by pika318
Summary: When the demons attacked Saint Aire, Emerada fully believed that everyone would die. But what happened in reality was not what she expected at all. Idea obtained from events in vol 9.


Moko-chan: While Pika318/mittens_220 was happily translating volume 10, she made me write this.

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 **One shot:** Unexpected Compassion

* * *

 _What is this bizarre situation?~~_

Emerada Etuva, the most powerful sorceress of Ente Isla thought to herself as she observed the events unfolding in front of her. She was currently trapped in the throne room of the castle belonging to the royal family of of the Holy Saint Aire Empire together with members of the royal family as well as some of their loyal officials.

Trapped may not be the most appropriate term as that would imply that all the doors and windows of the room were sealed or locked. Emerada and any of the other people could easily leave the throne room if they wanted to by simply climbing out through the window or by opening the door. However, lurking outside of the windows and the massive door were demons that vary in different shapes and sizes but all equally bloodthirsty.

And strangely enough, the one thing between Emerada and the other humans and imminent death was the commander of those very same vicious demons,

The Fallen Angel, Lucifer.

* * *

 _A couple of hours earlier…_

The day could not get any worse. Emerada was already stressed about the fact that there were demons heading straight for the royal castle in massive numbers. Next, she was stressed by the King's reckless refusal to leave due to the precious treasures he would have to leave behind. To add on to the pressure, the demons showed up just after she laid out the King's grim survival options and they were forced to hide in the throne room until aid arrived.

"Sorceress Etuva, get rid of those beasts!" A man wearing clerical robes shouted, his voice shaking in terror.

The small green haired sorceress tried her very best not to roll her eyes in irritation as she was already focusing all her attention on the throne room door to keep it shut. A bead of sweat flowed down her forehead as counteracted the forces of demon after demon throwing themselves at the door.

"Sorceress Etuva!" The man shrieked again.

"Oh, would you please be quiet already?" Emerada muttered under her breath as she threw a lightning bolt at a demon that managed to climb its way into the throne room through the window. Fortunately the windows were not very wide so only the small and medium sized demons could get in.

 _When is help going to arrive?!_

Emerada had already requested for aid through Idea Link but she had doubts that she would be able to fend off the demons for much longer.

Then at that moment, the demons started clamouring through the windows in troves.

 _Darn it!_

She had severely regretted coming to talk to the King by herself. If she got at least two or maybe three of her colleagues with her, she would not have to divide her attention as such.

The demons rushed in and started heading towards the officials and royal family members who were screaming and heading for the wall in order to get away from the beasts as far as they can. However, how far can one run when they were in an enclosed room?

Emerada dashed towards the group of fleeing humans, ignoring the door that got flung open by the other invading demons and placed herself between the people with seemingly more important lives and the demons.

The demon that got the closest seemed to be one of a beast species. Its entire body was very hairy and its head resembled that of a rat. With a leap, it launched itself at Emerada and the rest. As its jaws opened, Emerada prepared a spell to burn it. However, she did not get to use it at all.

Just as she uttered the first syllable of her spell, a blinding purple beam shot through the skull of the rat-like demon. Although the inertia of the demon's initial leap carried its corpse forward, it was quickly stopped by someone who landed on it, sending it crashing into the ground.

Emerada squinted and backed up as she heard the loud crash. In the process of backing up, she stepped on the King's foot but it was not the time to care about whether she committed the crime of harming a member of royalty.

As the sorceress opened her eyes to look at their "savior", the first thing she noticed was a pair of large jet black wings. Attached to the wings was a small demon. No. More accurately, a creature who looked a lot like a human. A petite human-like creature wearing a heavy black coat. Now that she thought about it, she did know of a being who had that kind of appearance.

"An...angel?"

In the bible, a powerful being known as an angel existed. According to the stories written in them, the angel was a being who looked like a human but had large white bird like wings on their backs.

However, the angel in front of her, with the exception of his pale skin, had not a speck of white on him.

"The Demon Army's fallen angel...Lucifer." One of the officials behind Emerada muttered in a terrified voice.

 _So this is the rumored fallen angel._

Emerada thought to herself as she held an arm out as though shielding the other people behind her.

The fallen angel, Lucifer stepped away from the rat demon he shot a new hole into and kicked its body away from him. Then, in a language Emerada could not understand, he started shouting at the other demons who seem to be frozen in their positions when he arrived. Some of the demons started hissing, as though in protest. Lucifer raised his right arm above him and multiple purple orbs appeared. That seemed to be a signal that he had no patience for the unhappy demons. With that, every demon scrambled out of the throne room, either through the windows or the door.

Before the last of the demons left the room, Lucifer pointed at some of the slower ones and shouted something else. The demons closed the doors to the throne room by pushing them shut before making their exit through the window.

The room suddenly fell silent as the demons were gone and the humans dared not make a sound.

Lucifer was still looking in the direction where his comrades left. He started muttering something to himself. Even though Emerada could not understand it, from the tone, he was probably cursing about something. Then with an annoyed clicking of the tongue, he turned to Emerada and the people behind her. With what can only be described as a look of irritation, he spoke.

"You there."

 _Ehhhh? Is he speaking in Holy Weiss?_

Emerada's jaw dropped and she was pretty sure the people behind her was as flabbergasted as she was. As Emerada did not manage to respond within ten seconds, the fallen angel frowned and drew closer to Emerada and then he shouted right into her ear.

"HEY, YOU THERE!"

"Wagh!" Emerada fell over in shock, holding her hand over her now throbbing right ear.

"I thought you were deaf. So you can hear me." Lucifer folded his arms across his chest and sneered.

 _Why that little….._

"What...do you want?" Emerada asked cautiously although she was in the mood to fry the small demon who almost caused her eardrums to rupture.

"You seem to be the calmest of the lot so I thought it would be more efficient to speak to you." Lucifer shot a glance at the rest of "the lot" who were so terrified that they were close to hugging each other already.

"The terms are very simple. Our Demon King requests that the humans surrender. Withdraw your troops and we'll end the attack." Lucifer said lightly as though it was the simplest matter in the world.

"Of course we won't do that! We will never yield to a filthy demon!" One of the officials shouted loudly just as Lucifer finished his sentence.

 _At least pretend you were thinking about it!_

Emerada thought frantically to herself. There she was, thinking how best they could buy time but these officials would rather display their pride to everyone without thinking of the consequences. She looked at Lucifer, her heart pounding as she thought that the fallen angel might kill the official off without batting an eyelid. She starting thinking of the strongest protection spell she could use...

However,

"Sighhhhh~~~That stupid Satan, why must he make things so bloody troublesome." Lucifer started grumbling while scratching the back of his head. And he said those words in the language they understood.

"Uhh….." Emerada was at the loss for words.

"Ah, whatever, I'll give you all time to think about it." Lucifer said in a frustrated manner and with a barely audible voice.

"Satan won't be very happy if I just offed all of you anyways."

With that he walked to the centre of the room and sat down there. Perhaps to show that he was confident that none of the humans would be able to defeat him, he sat with his back facing them.

"Uhh…."

Emerada made an air headed sound a bit louder this time.

"What is it?"Lucifer asked grumpily as he turned his head.

"How much time?"

"Oh, that. Until you lot starve to death I guess. Ah, don't worry about getting ripped apart. Those idiots won't come in unless I ask them to." Lucifer replied dismissively. With that, he turned to face the door again.

* * *

 _Ookkk, so now what?_

Although Emerada was aware that they were not fully out of danger, she, the royal family and the other officials were feeling less tense and they have stopped huddling around like penguins in a blizzard.

There was no clock or time piece around to indicate how long they have been in this standstill. But given that it was definitely midday when the attack first happened and she could tell that the sky was darkening through the broken window, it has been five, maybe six hours already.

And there was still no sign of aid.

 _Maybe they got killed on the way here._

Emerada felt a chill down her spine as she thought of the worst case scenario that could have happened to the rescue team that should have been dispatched to get them out of the precarious mess. The sorceress looked at the back of the fallen angel again. Given how he did not speak with them or make any movement for a while, she was starting to suspect that he might have nodded off.

Emerada rubbed her fingers together, considering the notion of killing off the commander and then making a break for it.

 _But who knows how many demons are out there...Even if I'm confident of killing all of them off, who's to say these people behind me will be able to make it out intact._

Furthermore, Emerada was not sure if she can even kill off Lucifer at all. If he was confident enough to not look at them or more absurdly, nap in their presence, he must have some overwhelming ability.

Around her, she can hear the rest of the humans commenting about their thirst and hunger.

"Sigh…"

Emerada could not help but let out a dejected sigh.

"Let's just surrender. At least if we do that, we have a chance of staying alive." Emerada shot a glance at the King while she said that.

The King, his family and other officials looked like they were about to protest but Emerada repeated the important words in a low threatening voice.

"We have a chance of STAYING ALIVE."

The desire to protest was immediately annihilated.

With another heavy sigh, Emerada dragged her feet towards Lucifer and standing about a metre away from him, she said:

"We surrender."

Maybe because she was hungry, anxious or just frustrated with the entire situation. She ended up speaking in a volume that was higher and louder than initially intended. She saw the black wings jerk and the fallen angel turned his head around. He spoke after looking at Emerada's face for a few seconds.

"Good!"

 _He was sleeping, he was definitely sleeping!_

There was no way to explain what seemed to be the actions of someone who just got jolted awake.

"Alright then~~ I'll just tell my troops to back off for the moment. Don't go back on your word though or I'll have to kill all of you off." Lucifer said with a lazy drawl. With that, he left through on of the windows. The humans left in the throne room could do nothing but stare at the window.

* * *

Four years have passed since the Western Continent fell to the clutches of the Demon King. Although most people lived in fear of the demons in the area, there were others who tried to fight back or at least showed signs of wanting to fight back. Those unfortunate souls were, of course, mercilessly killed.

Meanwhile, Emerada, the royal family and other high ranking officials were placed under "house arrest" of sorts. Although they were pretty much free to go wherever they wanted within the proximity of the castle of Saint Aire, they were under constant watch by demons. Any false move and they will be slaughtered immediately.

Honestly speaking, Emerada was surprised that the demons did not commence an all out massacre in the area. For some reason, the Demon King did not want all the humans to die. She had thought it was very odd and wondered if the Demon King was invading for reasons other than the ambition to conquer more land.

 _Or maybe I'm just thinking too much about it._

One time, she spotted Lucifer lounging around in the castle and she plucked up her courage to ask:

"What does the Demon King plan to do?"

Lucifer stared at her as though she just asked how the Earth was created or something like that and then he simply replied,

"I don't know. Now scram."

And scram she did.

* * *

The day of the rescue of Saint Aire was something that will always be burnt in Emerada's mind. One moment, they were still living the life which they had gotten used to, the next moment, chaos started again.

She was at the castle at that time, with the royal family. Suddenly the demons caught wind of something and started panicking. Very quickly, the outside was filled with the cries of demons. Just as Emerada wanted to poke her head out of the window to see what was going on, someone appeared there. A someone wearing silver armor and holding a large silver sword. The person's face was hidden by a helmet but from the attire, Emerada could guess the person's gender. Shortly after, the person spoke and Emerada could confirm her suspicions.

"Are you Emerada Etuva?"

Emerada's eyes widened as her name was mentioned and she nodded her head silently. The other person removed her helmet and revealed the face of a young lady with long silver hair.

"My name is Emilia Justina and I'm here to save Ente Isla." The lady said with a stern voice.

 _Oh my gosh, so cool~~~~!_

Emerada would had started gushing about how Emilia was one of the coolest people she ever met but there were other serious matters that need to be settled.

"My comrade, Olba Meyers, will be here soon so don't worry. I'll take care of the commander and all of you will be free. Please provide your assistance. We heard that you are a powerful sorceress."

"Okay…" Emerada squeaked. She was still in awe.

With a slight smile, the silver haired hero left the window, presumably to take down the fallen angel. Just as she said, her friend, Olba appeared and settled the rest of the demons inside the castle. After that, she heard that the demons were chased away and she continued the rest of her days with Emilia and Olba to save the rest of Ente Isla.

* * *

 **pika318:** So after translating vol 9 and reading about Alberto's conversation about Adramelech, I started to wonder if Lucifer had some similar negotiation in the Western Continent. And this is the result.


End file.
